New Romney swing-state ads hit Obama on energy

Mitt Romney unveiled new ads Friday that bash the White House refusal to allow oil-and-gas drilling off Virginia’s coast and allege that administration regulations are “strangling our energy industry.”

The new spots, combined with earlier ads pledging to immediately approve the Keystone XL oil sands pipeline, signal that Romney’s campaign hopes to gain traction with repeated attacks on President Obama’s energy record.

The campaign released separate ads Friday in the swing states of Virginia, Ohio, North Carolina and Iowa that tout what Romney would do in his first 100 days if elected. The Virginia and Ohio ads address energy.

“By Day 100, President Romney reverses Obama’s offshore drilling ban, creating thousands of new jobs for Virginians,” the Virginia spot states.

Republicans have slammed the Obama administration’s decision not to sell drilling leases off the Atlantic Coast despite the expiration of a leasing moratorium in 2008. Virginia’s two Democratic senators also support drilling off their coast.

The White House, after the 2010 BP oil spill, backed off support for allowing oil-and-gas leasing off the mid-Atlantic and southeastern coasts in coming years, and scrapped a planned 2011 lease sale off Virginia’s coast that had been scheduled during the Bush administration.

The Interior Department’s 2012-2017 offshore program is focused on expanded leasing in the Gulf of Mexico and, in the later years, off Alaska’s coast — a plan the White House emphasizes is providing oil companies access to highly promising areas for exploration.

The ad running in Ohio, meanwhile, pledges, “By Day 100, President Romney repeals regulations that are strangling our energy industry and costing us jobs.”

The ad doesn’t provide specifics.

Romney’s campaign has bashed a number of Obama administration regulations, including new rules to limit emissions of mercury and other airborne toxins from coal-fired power plants.

Romney also wants to nullify EPA’s authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions under the Clean Air Act.